Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-04


proceed calmly to lash the corpse to a
horse and take it to the nearest railroad
station. After all it might be Pete Olsen
and they desired at least to have sufficient
Identification to claim the reward. Reach.
ing railroad station and telegraph Office
they telegraphed to the authorities of the
county in which Pete Olsen committed his
awful crime to about the following effect
| ave killed man in the mountains
with shotguns. We have his body here
at the depot. We suspect strongly that
the man we have killed was Pete Olsen
Before we bury him we want some one ac-
quainted with Olsen to examine and see
whether we have made mistake or not
Be as expeditions as possible as we wish to
return to the mountains and bring in the
bodies of more men with bald spots on the
back of their heads"
Pleased with this happy piece of in
telligence, the Sheriff of the county,
accompanied by persons acquainted with
the missing murderer, visited the morgue
at Bakersfield, and after thorough ex-
animation of the body, declared that it
was not that of the wicked and malignant
Pete Olsen; whereupon a contemporary
published in San Francisco remarks:
"The man who was shot near Bakers
field proves, as we feared, not to be the
fugitive Napa murderer, Olsen. He was
innocent of that crime, uhateuer may hare
| been his record"
Here we have plain intimation that of
course he must have been guilty of some
crime, and perhaps it was well enough to
shoot him anyhow, and bring in his body
for identification. Thus encouraged, we
see no reason why the Carver boys should
be discouraged from proceeding further in
their search of Olsen. The fact that the
man they killed, and whose body they
brought to Bakersfield, turns out not to
have been Olsen, may be an incident only
In the pursuit of criminals. Men are all
liable to be mistaken when they go
cunning for escaping murderers, and if the
Carver boys and others residing in the
mountains will continue to kill men, and
bring in their bodies for Identification,
they may happily strike the right man,
and justice at last be vindicated. Our San
Francisco contemporary, however, strikes
the keynote of civilized ideas of Justice
when it says:
The fact remains that an innocent man
was killed, and his blood must be laid to
the account Of the murderous brute who is
now probably safe in hiding somewhere"
If the Carver boys are as industrious as
this first endeavor would seem to indicate.
there will be an indefinite number of muir
ders charged to Pete Olsen by the time he
is captured, and if he has any regard what
ever for his good name he will give him
self up before he is made accountable for
many more slaughters of innocents.
The process of reasoning which estab-
lished the supposed identity of the MUIR
dered man with the escaping murderer was
quite as unique as in the case of the Chi
naman. As in the latter case, there were
two points of identifcation-at least there
were two branches to the presumption.
Pete Olsen had a bald spot on the top of
his head. The man had bald spot in the
place where the hair ought to grow.
Therefore the man killed was Pete Olsen.
The stranger resisted arrest Pete Olsen
would have resisted arrest Therefore the
man killed was Pete Olsen. If these
methods of procedure are to be introduced
in all eases of pursuit of murderers a sim
gle assassination may be depended upon to
multiply itself indefinitely, and if point,
of identification such as these are to be de-
pended upon, all men with bald spots on
the back of their heads should immedi
ately surrender themselves for identified
ton, and procure certificate from those
who know Pete Olsen that they are not he.
Then, when one of them chooses to To-
cate piece of Government land in the
mountains, and his neighbors visit his
cabin with shotguns, he can proudly and
confidently exhibit his credentials. and
thus escape being shot and having his BODY
carried to the nearest railroad station for
identification. Perhaps it would be as well
for County Supervisors to issue a license to
men with bald spots on the back of their
heads, showing that they have permission
to be bald in that particular locality. If
the Carver brothers intend to arrest or
kill every man with bald spot on the
back of his head, we would recommend
them to visit the first ballet exhibition at
the Grand Opera House in San Francisco,
where if tradition is to be trusted, they
may pop away at every man on the first
three rows from the stage.
1t is necessary and right to pursue es-
Gaping murderers, but who is to atone for
the death of the Chinaman mistaken for
Hong Di, and for the ruthless murder of
the stranger mistaken for Olsen. These
men were endowed with life; they had a
right to live. In civilized condition
where human life is held sacred, other
methods than those of shooting on sight
would have been adopted Incidents like
these energize the murderous instincts of
mankind by lessening their regard for
human life. We are prepared to maintain
that the shooting of the innocent China
man in Tehama county, and the killing Of.
the innocent stranger in Kern county, and
the manner in which these incidents are re-
ceived by the public, constantly reproduce
the Hong Dis and the Pete Olsens. Such
creatures are the generation of the aggre-
gate conception of human duty. Every act
tending to show the public disregard for
sacredness of human life weakens the re-
straining force of civilized ideas upon men
with murder in their hearts. The gallows
is but an attestation of the horror with
which civilization regards the taking of
human life, and the cool disregard of all
the RESPONSIBILITIES which sho,,ld rost ,,r,,,